Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Post-Rookie Tournament Notes

With the Senators wrapping up their rookie tournament in Oshawa with a fairly wild overtime victory against the Leafs, it's time for Black Aces to get back into the swing of things, so here's the first post-game notes of the season....

..... Mark Stone picked the perfect time to make some noise in an otherwise quiet tournament for the World Junior eligible prospect. His overtime goal showed those nice hands that have largely masked his past troubles with skating and ensured Ottawa goes into main camp on a high. There's virtually nothing for any fan to be disappointed in after a perfect 3-0 record for the Sens but there were a few players who should have made a bigger impression, Stone being one of those. He wasn't bad, he just played in the shadows of some of the bigger names who brought it every game like Mika Zibanejad, Robin Lehner, Stephane Da Costa, Jared Cowen, David Rundblad and Andre Petersson among others. On defense, Patrick Wiercioch should have had a better tourney than he did but there is more time to prove himself at main camp. Really, you have to look hard for any negatives here.....

.....The thing that's surprised me the most about Mika Zibanejad? His willingness to hit and play physical in the offensive zone. I already knew he was big, but this guy could end up playing like Mike Fisher, but with more hockey sense. Fisher had the shot, the size and the wheels, but sometimes he couldn't put it all together consistently, perhaps due to a lack of elite hockey sense. You get the feeling Zibanejad won't have those same problems if he's this good at 18 years of age. It will also be interesting to see how Zibanejad does at faceoffs against real NHL'ers in camp and in exhibition games. He looked like a man among boys in the faceoff circle through most of the Oshawa tournament but he's going to be practising against guys like Zenon Konopka who are masters of the art. Should be fun to watch how the kid does in that regard......The guy I kept liking more and more as the tourney progressed was Andre Petersson. Sometimes he didn't seem like he was moving all that much but when the puck was on his stick, he smelled blood and tried to make plays a lot of guys wouldn't attempt. The thing you notice is that puckhandling of his and his ability to wait that split-second more for a space to open up, either on a defenseman or a goalie. He could get the puck away as soon as it was on his stick or wait everyone out and then shift to his backhand. Sneaky good. I have no idea how he will handle himself in main camp but he has a chance to be a real goal-scorer in the NHL, probably sooner than you think.....

......Randy Lee, the Senators Director of Player Development, said to a Rogers reporter during the second intermission that in his 15 years in the organization, this is the most talented group of prospects he's ever seen. It's hard to argue.....With the way Corey Cowick has played in this tourney, you have to think he's already earned a good shot to stay with Bingo rather than spend any more time in the ECHL with Elmira. It sure helps that Kurt Kleinendorst, the Bingo bench boss is on hand to see Cowick's gritty transformation first hand. At 6'3", 210 pounds, Cowick won't be at a disadvantage in many physical battles if he puts his mind to it and it looks like he still has the hands that netted him 34 goals in 68 games with the Ottawa 67's back in 2009......

......Good to see Mark Borowiecki was okay after taking part in one of those very rare double-knockout scraps as he delivered a devastating blow the exact same time he took one in the face causing him to bleed all over the ice. It wasn't a coincidence that Borowiecki was in a nasty mood because just prior to his scrap, Andre Petersson was levelled at centre ice by a Leaf. That's the way it usually works - when someone takes a run at a skilled player, there's going to be a fight not long afterwards, even if it's not with the guy who took the run in the first place. That's the only real protection for star players from headhunters, even with the instigating penalty in place to dissuade frontier justice.As much as some people now find fighting distasteful, and I can understand that on a visceral level, it can still keep the other team honest if used right. A player knows that if he tries to hurt a star player, he's going to have to answer in a fight, or if not him, one of his teammates will have to, which is sometimes worse. If you go around taking cheap shots at the talent but instead of answering the bell, you let your teammates pay the price, at some point you won't be very popular in your own dressing room. Perhaps that very tenuous balancing act has kept a lot of star players in the league even though you could never prove it outright. For every Sidney Crosby that suffers an accidental blow to the head, think of how many guys were dissuaded out of hitting Wayne Gretzky because Dave Semenko or Marty McSorley were there to be policemen. How come nobody ever touched Mark Messier during his prime? It's because Messier himself would take your head off with an elbow or simply make your bladder drain just by staring at you. Fighting is not always just about trying to knock someone on their ass for the spectacle of it. It's there to keep pests and anyone else with nasty intentions honest. It's not a perfect system by any means, but it's not going extinct like some believe or fervently wish. Good on Borowiecki, not an enforcer or a "goon" by any means, for showing he'll stand up for his team at any moment's notice......

......That was a heck of a spinerama by David Rundblad in the middle of the first period to elude a defender and then slip a short soft pass between another Leaf defender's legs. If he somehow doesn't make the team in October, he could very well tear apart the AHL with moves like that...... Jared Cowen already looks familiar in that #2 jersey. A couple of other big, tough Senators defenseman have worn #2, like Luke Richardson, Grant Ledyard, Bobby Dollas, Lance Pitlick and Jim Kyte. But there have also been guys like Brian Pothier and Lawrence Nycholat, not exactly known for their intimidating nature. Needless to say, #2 hasn't been retired yet for the Senators. But if Cowen is the Senators next Chris Phillips (like I think he has the potential to be), he could be the last to wear #2 if he can have a career as good as Big Rig's, who incidentally will probably be the last #4 in Ottawa if he stays for the rest of his contract..... I say this every year, but I still don't think it's right that prospects get to wear the official NHL uniform in prospect games. It would be way more significant if they get to pull on an NHL jersey for the first time after they actually make the team. You could make it so that the prospects wear a slightly altered uniform (or a vastly different one) and the team could then market a new jersey made specifically for the rookie tournaments and even pre-season games if you want to extend it that far (The Red Wings sort of do this by not using their real arched nameplate font until the actual season, but the jerseys look the same for the most part). The NHL jersey should be reserved for real NHL players. I highly doubt this idea will ever get traction, but it's interesting to think of what uniform ideas teams would come up with. For instance, the Sens could let their prospects wear the original uni's from the 90's. Now that would be something to see....

.....Unsettling to hear rumours of Eugene Melnyk possibly wanting to unload his ownership of the Senators, but it must be unsettling for Eugene to see an NHL arena in Canada struggling to sell out every game on top of a very low season ticket base year after year. This is likely just a rumour, but sometimes where there's smoke......With that being said, it's a good bet the Senators gain a lot of fan momentum with the All-Star game in town, a boatload full of young, much talked about kids playing alongside a few remaining fan favourites like Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Neil, as well as possibly being a much better hockey team than most prediction publications think they will be....... Here's a hunch: goalie Craig Anderson is going to become another fan favourite very quickly in the capital, making the fans forget about Robin Lehner in the short-term while he bides his time in Bingo. Anderson seems like a good quote for the media and doesn't yet carry the baggage that all Sens goalies eventually have to hoist around town. He's in the perfect situation to excel - on a team with low expectations - which is exactly the kind of atmosphere that gave him success in Florida and Colorado.....For a guy who has scored less than 20 goals in his NHL career, Kyle Turris is showing some real brass ones by not signing a contract with Phoenix yet. But I guess 3 points in 4 playoff games last year makes him feel like he's just an under appreciated Sean Bergenheim. Good luck Kyle....

.....It's too bad they play in the West because having Dany Heatley, Mike Fisher, Marian Hossa and Martin Havlat in the Kanata rink more often would create a buzz you don't necessarily get when Joe Corvo comes to visit a handful of times a season. We've gotten used to seeing Zdeno Chara, which is weird, because how do you get used to seeing a 7 foot hockey player anyways?..... My next door neighbour has literally not turned off her ancient and rusted window air-conditioner since the beginning of May, hot or cold. It now sounds like a diesel train derailing into a ball-bearing factory....

2 comments:

That's the only real protection for star players from headhunters, even with the instigating penalty in place to dissuade frontier justice.

The thing that kills me is that it *doesn't have to be this way*. If the league would stop listening to the pro-fighting camp, they would just direct the refs to get tough on dirty hits to star players. (I'm not saying any particular recent hits on star players were or were not dirty here - that's a debate for another day.) And then they'd direct the refs to get tough on guys who go after guys who went after star players.

It's easy, but some people are too hung up on how it's always been to see it.